The Beatles “Can’t Buy Me Love” 1000% Kubrick Set

Silly Thing continue to work on a wide range of projects that impress, this time attracting Medicom Toys to produce an astounding 1000% Kubrick collection. The subject is the most iconic rock band of all time the Beatles and has fittingly been given the “Can’t Buy Me Love” title. Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon all appear cloth and dagger providing a fun caricature version of the group.

Netflix To Stream HD Movies To Xbox 360 Owners Next Month

When the New Xbox Experience launches next month, 360 owners will have the opportunity to stream Netflix movies to their console. This is something we’ve known for some time, and is honestly one of the things I look forward to the most regarding the dashboard update. However, it seems that they’ve been holding out on us.

Not only are we going to be able to stream Netflix movies on our Xbox 360’s, but we’re going to be able to do it in HD. When the NXE goes live on November 19th, Netflix will also be launching their HD streaming service, which will work with the 360. According to sources, there will be over 300 movies available in full HD when the service launches. 

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MS Arc Mouse Reviewed. Verdict: An Excellent Travel Companion

For road warriors going on a business a trip, the second most important thing other than a notebook is a mobile mouse, which can greatly affect productivity. Having said that, Microsoft has had numerous laptop mice over the years that are both functional and portable, but none of them is more eye catching as the Arc Mouse. The aptly-named Arc sports a hinged semicircular shape that allows it to close to nearly half-size for travel, and to unfold to a full-sized mouse. The mini USB dongle is also hidden in a crevice on the underside of the folding wing, which becomes the mouse’s palm rest.

After Everything USB spent nearly two weeks with the Arc, surfing the web and checking emails, they found the mouse to be spot-on for most tasks while preventing fatigue. The rubberized sides also allow you to get a good grip since the surface of the Arc is in gloss paint with a glass-smooth finish. In the end, while there are certainly some minor flaws in usability and set-up, the Arc mobile mouse is praised as “an excellent travel companion” that is well worth the price.

Altered Dream Tour Format for ASP World Tour in 2009

Following one of the most historic board meetings to date, the ASP has introduced the option for a new competition format to be implemented in ASP World Tour events in 2009.

While the traditional 48-man format will still be available, events can elect to implement an altered 48-man format consisting of the following: two opening elimination man-on-man rounds. Round 1 will consist of 32 surfers, those rated 17 – 27 on the ASP World Tour, three Tour/Injury wildcards, the Top 15–rated surfers on the ASP WQS and three event wildcards.

The seeding formula will remain the same as the traditional format, with the No. 17 seed up against the No. 32 seed in Heat 8, the No. 18 seed against the No. 31 seed in Heat 9, etc. After Round 1, all remaining competitors will be reseeded for Round 2.

The Top 16 on the ASP World Tour are seeded directly in Round 2 where they will meet the 16 victors from Round 1 in the re-seeded draw. The Top 10 from the previous year’s Dream Tour will be guaranteed a Round 2 seed all year long, while the next 6 seeds have to maintain their seeded position and can be replaced by better performing back 32 surfers after the third ASP World Tour event of the year.

This means that the Top 16 seeds in 2009 will remain unchanged until after the Billabong Pro Teahupoo. After Tahiti, only the Top 10 from the previous year will hold their spots (which is probably a good incentive to do Brazil and Pipeline this season), while the next 6 could be replaced if guys from the back 32 secure more seeding points. Seeding points going into Snapper will remain in effect.

The new format has already been adopted by the Billabong Pro Teahupoo, the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay, the Billabong Pro Mundaka and the Billabong Pipeline Masters. The Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, the opening event of the 2009 ASP World Tour, has opted to run with the traditional format, and Rip Curl are undecided which format they will implement at their Bells Beach and Search events.

We recently sat down with Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew (AUS), 53, former ASP World Champion and current President of ASP International, Mick Fanning (AUS), 27, 2007 ASP World Champion, and C.J. Hobgood (USA), 29, 2001 ASP World Champion, to discuss the new format:

1 – First off, what is (are) the reason(s) for the option to run an altered format next year?

Wayne Bartholomew: As part of the monitoring process it was clear that we needed to develop a menu of formats to fit the needs of the tour. The current format requires four running days. This doesn’t sound overbearing in a 12-day window, but we still require two swell cycles to complete the event in quality waves and this proved a bridge too far. To fit into a three-day swell cycle we had to either reduce the field from 48 to 36 or peel it from a different angle.

Mick Fanning: I think some people just think that we waste a day or so when we run the first round with three-man heats and sometimes we can’t finish the event with good waves. I think it will make it all a lot more exciting because it is straight cut throat from the first heat of competition.
C.J. Hobgood: I think getting the best waves in the allotted waiting period is the primary reason for offering the alternative format.
 
2 – Who came up with the format? When and who voted on its implementation?

Wayne Bartholomew: The ASP Technical Committee waded through a bunch of variations and opted to recommend to the Board a three-day format that still maintains a field of 48. As Chairman of the Technical Committee, I presented these findings and recommendations to the Mid-Year Board meeting in Huntington Beach this past July and we further tweaked it in the ensuing months.
 
3 – We can see that not all events will be running the new altered format – what is the reason that it was not mandatory for all events to implement?

Wayne Bartholomew: Events in 2009 will have the choice of the current format or implementing the new one. Quiksilver have already confirmed they will run with the current format, based on the fact that Snapper is a reasonably consistent wave and it can accommodate a combined Men’s and Women’s event in the window. Rip Curl is undecided, but are leaning towards the new format.

The Tech Comm is now working on how far out from the start of a waiting period an event has to notify ASP of their preferred option. Billabong have already given notice that Teahupoo, J-Bay, Mundaka and Pipe will run with the new format and events like Boost and Brazil are getting their heads around it. In 2009, it is optional with the view to either making it mandatory from 2010 or running with a format menu.
 
4 – What are the positives for the surfers, the events and the viewers to run the new format?

Wayne Bartholomew: The surfers get man-on-man, no more three-man heats. There are built in seeding incentives based on performance over the season and there is a much better opportunity to pick the eyes out of the surf on offer. The events get to maximize swell cycles and build the event to a climactic conclusion in excellent surf. The chances of getting skunked are dramatically diminished and the opportunity to have Finals in great surf increases. The viewers get knockout competition. There are no meaningless rounds, it is on the line in every heat and they’ll see a lot less action in low quality waves.

Mick Fanning: The positives are definitely the shorter period for the event. Most swells around the world only last three days, but our events take four to complete. Cutting out a round cuts that day out, keeps the performance level at high level because every heat counts, makes the Top 16 and Top 10 get an actual incentive for ranking that high instead of just the red singlet.

C.J. Hobgood: I think the positives are better waves for surfers, less days needed to run for the events, better waves and surfing for viewers.
 
5 – What are the negatives (if any) for surfers, the events and the viewers to run the new format?

Wayne Bartholomew: The only negative for the surfer is if one loses in the first round. You are out and it’s a long way to go to be bundled out. I surfed my entire career without a safety net but guys get used to the second chance. If the swell absolutely pumps then the event might want the extra day for the beach crowd, the media and the webcast.

So loss of content could be seen as a negative, but the trade-off will be an excellent event held in epic waves. Also, that may be why we eventually perpetuate the optional format menu. For the viewer they can’t get enough, so the shorter event might be a negative, but again, the action will be an awesome spectacle.

Mick Fanning: I think the Back 32 will be extremely close when it comes to being on the cusp of qualifying, but everyone has to start at the bottom. The audience won’t get to see your favorite surfers hit the water as many times, but it will be crucial each time they do.
 
6 – We see the Top 16 are seeded directly into Round 2. What happens to the rest?

Wayne Bartholomew: The back 32, made up of the back 11 of the Top 27, the Top 15 from the WQS, the 3 tour/injury wildcards and 3 Event wilds, go man-on-man in Round 1. So nobody misses out, but the re-introduction of the Top 16 provides incentive to be at every event.
 
7 – Part of the reason for the new format is to work towards a one-world ranking. This is something that was mandated in the past, but changed to the two-tiered system. Why are we moving back towards it? What are the advantages? When will is possibly be implemented?

Wayne Bartholomew: We hope to implement a one-world ranking system in 2010. The dynamic is totally different to pre-1992. There will still be 1-6 Stars, still be 6-Star Primes, and they will count towards the Top 45, who will still contest the ASP World Tour. There will most likely be a fluid transition whereby the bottom performing Top 45 will be replaced by high performing ASP WQS surfers in the same season. This will be much more marketable, better for media and more defining for the industry when it comes to sponsorships.

Mick Fanning: I think in this day and age, we need a one-world ranking system. The way the format works at the moment, the general public can’t get their heads around it. I think it will help with how the ASP WQS is run also and make it easier for everyone to understand where they are. Also, if people get injured or have a bad year their ranking won’t drop dramatically and they won’t fall off tour. We have had a few of these cases over the years and hopefully that will cut that out.

C.J. Hobgood: I’ve always been a huge fan of the one-world ranking system. I never understood why guys like Danny Fuller, Bruno Santos, Manoa Drollet and Jamie O’Brien would make Finals and Semis against the best surfers in the world and not have a world ranking. Like in Chile when the local wildcard made a heat, the people in Chile should be able to look at their guy and see how he ranks on the one-world ranking system. Even if he is 400th, it’s still a ranking. Also, the one-world rating system is easier to understand – I’m so sick of trying to explain to someone that knows very little about surfing our two-tier system.

Renato Hickel (BRA), ASP World Tour Manager, noted also that, “some adjustments may take place in the next Technical Committee meeting. It’s possible that we will reduce the number from Top 10 to Top 8, or even reseed everyone after Tahiti, but we will have to wait until Hawaii to ultimately determine.”

www.aspworldtour.com

superFishal 2008 Fall/Winter Skatedeck Collection

In what has become a seasonal highlight from Jeremy Fish’s superFishal brand, the artist unveils his latest collaboration driven skatedeck collection. Previous contributors have included Todd Bratrud, Michael Sieben and Pushead with the new wave of artists including Willi Barras (The Stack), Andy Howell (The Spirit) and Mike Giant (The Serpent). Each deck is priced at $80 USD and available now at Upper Playground.

Cory Lopez Sick Long Left Ride

 

Sotheby’s New York to Offer Mural by Rufino Tamayo ~ entitled ‘America’

The November 18th Evening sale of Latin American Art at Sotheby’s will feature Rufino Tamayo’s impressive mural, entitled America (est. $7/9 million). A truly magnificent and aweinspiring mural, America was completed by Rufino Tamayo during an extraordinary five-month burst of production. Working at a feverish pace without assistants, Tamayo painted seven days a week to complete what was to be his most important mural. Today it is rightly hailed as one of his finest masterpieces, the crowning achievement of what was arguably his most glorious period. Of the five murals Tamayo executed in the United States, America is the only one currently held in private hands.

Centre Pompidou presents a Retrospective Exhibition of Christian Bonnefoi

The Centre Pompidou presents, for the first time, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Christian Bonnefoi, a distinctive figure in French contemporary art since the 1970s. Bonnefoi’s painting has been nourished by an extensive reflection on other art practices and procedures, on collage, assemblage and montage in particular. His goal has been to “make visible” the material and historical components of painting in all their infinite complexity. On exhibition through 5 January, 2009.

Robert Adanto’s ‘The Rising Tide’ to be Featured at the Hirshhorn Museum

The Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Presents Robert Adanto’s The Rising Tide, a New Documentary on Chinese Contemporary Art. In his beautiful debut film, Robert Adanto explores the work of some of China’s most talented emerging video artists and photographers and their personal responses to the country’s rise as a global economic, political and cultural force. This is a unique opportunity to see this elegant and thoughtful film, introduced by the director.

Featured artists include: Cao Fei, Wang Qingsong, Xu Zhen, Zhang O, Chen Qiulin, Yang Yong, and Birdhead

The Rising Tide was recently part of CHINA NOW in the UK, as it was part of Constant Stream: China 08 at the Royal College of Art in London, where it screened with a film by acclaimed Chinese director Jia Zhangke.

The scene of the greatest economic and cultural metamorphosis of our time, China is not only at the center of the world’s attention but has arguably the most vital, imaginative, and uncontainable art scene in the world. The Rising Tide investigates China’s meteoric march toward the future through the work of some of its most talented emerging artists, whose work reflects the country’s rising influence as an economic, political and cultural force in the global arena.

In recent years, Chinese artists, especially those working in photography and video, have gained international recognition for their powerful works capturing the social and aesthetic confusion created in a rapidly changing society. To the Chinese avant-garde, materialism is all pervasive, and the dominant consumer culture has altered people’s mentalities. Interestingly, their work, influenced by Western ideals and art practice, remains distinctly Chinese in its content and aesthetic.

Produced within the dual context of globalization and urbanization, the work of artists Cao Fei, Xu Zhen, Yang Yong, Wang Qingsong, Chen Qiulin, Birdhead, and Zhang O examines the collision between the present and the future, and the confusion and ambiguity that characterize the new China. Their work is often a stunned attempt to deal with the dynamic and tectonic forces transforming China. The Rising Tide captures this momentous time in China’s history while exploring the work of artists, who comment with intelligence, wit, foreboding and nostalgia.

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian’s museum of international modern and contemporary art, has some 11,500 paintings, sculptures, mixed media installations and works on paper in its collection.  The Hirshhorn maintains an active and diverse exhibition program and offers an array of free public programs that explore the art of our time.

The Hirshhorn Museum

Estampa Art Fair 2008 Opens in Madrid, Spain

The Estampa art fair, the largest platform for the dissemination of contemporaneous multiple art held in Spain and in Europe has a meeting point with art collectors and lovers from the 29th of October to the 2nd of November in Madrid, at the new pavilions of the IFEMA Trade Fair facilities. This year’s edition, number 16 since the fair started in 1992, will mean a leap forwards regarding the concept that up to the date has defined this historical event.

From the knowledge of engraving we have moved on to the more agglutinating contemporaneous multiple art which, in opinion of the organising committee, describes better the evolution of art of the last fifteen years regarding techniques, supports and concepts used in the edition field, and truly and faithfully reflects the role carried out by the fair as a platform for artistic dissemination.

Leading Galleries
Estampa, in order to preserve the quality of the event, will once again limit the participation of national and international galleries to a maximum of 90, which will show the most delicate, wide-ranged and innovating production of multiple art, carried out with the most classical stamping techniques and also those supports that are becoming more and more usual, such as photography, video or the use of computers.

For the first time, Estampa will receive leading galleries in the contemporaneous art panorama in Spain, such as Benveniste Contemporary, Blanca Berlín Galería, Cámara Oscura Galería de Arte, Galería Arnés and Röpke, Galería Carmen de la Calle or May Moré, all of which are located in Madrid, which will add to other renown galleries that usually participate in this event, such as Galería Estampa, La Caja Negra, Galería Múltiple or Multiplicidad.

Other galleries from other Spanish cities will return to the Fair, such as C5 Colección (Santiago de Compostela), and others, such as Galería Vértice (Oviedo) and Marisa Marimón Galería de Arte, will make their debut.

Estampa FRAME
Estampa 08 arrives full of novelties, such as the new exhibition spaces that have been conceived and that highlight the innovating spirit that the Fair wishes to encourage during this new period.

For example, this year the presence of a guest country has been replaced with Estampa FRAME, which will help to encourage alliances with leading centres and institutions in the edition art field in order to strengthen the exchange of ideas, help production and generate a wider view of the participating artists.

The two projects that will provide contents to Estampa FRAME in the upcoming edition are MIDE Lab and ISRAEL Artists Collective. MIDE Lab is the name of the multimedia laboratory of the Museo Internacional de Electrografía de Cuenca, which depends on the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, where research projects related with artistic creation and new technologies are carried out.

Estampa 08 will present the graphic works of a group of artists of the Universidad de Cuenca, chosen by the person in charge of MIDE, José Ramón Alcalá, and produced by the Taller Digigráfico de Madrid (company certified by EPSON for the development of the highest standards in digital printing).

The title ISRAEL Artists Collective refers to a collective video exhibition of artists from Israel that will show a view of the complex Israeli society and the always difficult social and political context where it is developed, without any sort of prejudices and totally unbiased. The exhibition will be commissioned by Eyal Danon, and it will be possible to carry it out thanks to the cooperation of the Israeli Centre for Digital Art of Holon, Tel Aviv, and the Israeli Embassy in Spain.

Eight video art, experimental cinema and 3D animation works from eight different upcoming artists whose work is unknown in Spain will be shown.

JAN HENDRIX, OFFICIAL IMAGE AND EXHIBITION
The author of the official image of Estampa 08, the Dutch artist Jan Hendrix (Maasbre, 1949), residing in Mexico since the 70s, and one of the most important worldwide references of the contemporaneous graphic art will take part in one of Estampa’s exhibitions, where he will show his most recent works.

The author assumes as a creative challenge the seizure of fragments of nature which he later submits to a different dimension than the one offered by the human eye, conferring the object a new exposition of the facts. Some people have compared this creative process with a virtual cinematographic zoom, to the extent that the magnifying lens distorts the appearance and the reality of the object under observation. The result is a wonderful discovery of the abstraction of the natural world.

Estampa AT IFEMA
The Fair repeats its location at the facilities of the trade fair park in Madrid, a site that provides the event with even better visibility and a larger projection for artists and visitors.